Debate continues around the public procurement system—or, more precisely, around how to spend the 5 trillion rubles allocated annually to government purchasing more effectively. A few days ago, Transparency International issued its anti-corruption assessment of the draft law on the "Federal Contract System," which the government is proposing as a replacement for the current Law No. 94-FZ.
Here is the full report. Here is the final table of indicators. Conclusion: the Federal Contract System draft, being pushed by the Ministry of Economic Development, entails significant corruption risks. The antimonopoly service’s proposals are also far from perfect, but from this standpoint they are less risky. You could say that TI generally shares the concerns previously voiced by RosPil and many others, but they approached the matter more thoroughly and produced what is essentially a full-fledged academic study. TI’s report strengthens the position of the opponents of the Federal Contract System, including RosPil. Nevertheless, as we promised earlier, RosPil has prepared its own amendments to the Federal Contract System bill and submitted them to the Ministry of Economic Development. In other words, these are no longer just slogans and ideas, but clearly drafted legal provisions ready to be incorporated into the bill. The full text (18 pages) is available here. In brief, the proposals are as follows: They establish the right to expedited appeals against violations committed during procurement procedures for all interested parties, regardless of whether they submitted bids to participate in the relevant procedures. They grant public associations the right to act in defense of the rights and lawful interests of an indefinite group of persons before the courts, law enforcement agencies, and the bodies responsible for internal and external oversight within the Federal Contract System, and also to file complaints about unlawful actions by the contracting authority. They establish the right of bidders and public associations to challenge, through administrative and judicial procedures, inadequate justification for the choice of procurement object, procurement method, initial (maximum) contract price, and requirements imposed on participants in procurement procedures. At the same time, they specify the procedure for calculating and justifying the initial (maximum) contract price. They impose obligations on companies that win procurement procedures: — for contracts worth more than 30 million rubles (about 30 million RUB) — to disclose their ultimate owners (beneficiaries), with that information to be published by the contracting authority in the unified information system; — for contracts worth more than 20 million rubles (about 20 million RUB) — to provide the contracting authority with information on subcontractors engaged, with that information to be published by the contracting authority in the unified information system. They establish an obligation to declare conflicts of interest when submitting an application, by requiring the person filing the application to indicate whether or not they have an interest in, or affiliation with, the contracting authority. In addition, it is proposed to: — supplement the bill’s provisions on internal and external oversight by defining the range of persons entitled to initiate oversight measures, specifying the procedures and timeframes for carrying them out, and increasing transparency; — remove the provision allowing the contracting authority to reject bids at its own discretion if the bidder’s proposed price is 25% or more below the initial price. Many thanks to everyone at RosPil who worked on these amendments. They’re doing solid work with public donations.